Comments on: Mine That Bird works out for Whitney Handicaphttp://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/mine-that-bird-works-out-for-whitney-handicap/5001/
National and local horse racing newsMon, 29 Dec 2014 17:54:22 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.3By: karen sweatmanhttp://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/mine-that-bird-works-out-for-whitney-handicap/5001/comment-page-2/#comment-5632
Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:18:15 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5632Fee, Mine that Birds’ derby win will go down in the history books as one of the most impressive of all time. In the final quarter mile the little gelding shot like a bullet to the finish line. The only other horse to match his time was the legendary Secretariat. Secretariat beat his time for the final quarter mile only by one hundreth of a second. People can trash talk Mine that Bird now, but no one will ever be able to deny him his place among the Kentucky Derby winners. On May 2, 2009 he was the best, hands down.
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Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:34:30 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5603Interesting about the failure rate of corrective surgery for epiglottis entrapment… but MTB seems to have great work-outs so if something physical is wrong wouldn’t it show there?

I have been watching the KY derby since 2006 and to me MTBs win was the most exhilarating! Win or loose he is still my favourite:) Hopefully next race will be better…

]]>By: qwertyhttp://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/mine-that-bird-works-out-for-whitney-handicap/5001/comment-page-1/#comment-5595
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:07:58 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5595Good horses sometime run great races. It doesn’t make them a great horse. It happens ALL the time. However, when a good horse runs a great race the 1st Saturday in May the expectations change. As a trainer, the worst thing that could happen was a horse running much better than ever anticipated in their first start. A trainer can never produce to the dreams of potential that owners have.
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Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:14:53 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5594Okay. I confess, I skimmed, but alot of the comments I read did touch on the throat surgery issue. I’m quilty of being hard on MTBs’ management also, but then again, I quess not all thoroughbreds can have a “dream team” like Zenyatta has. I’m happy her people love her, she’s a magnificent mare. A horse like her only comes around once in a lifetime.
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Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:09:19 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5593There are signs, sometimes hard to detect sometimes easy. It’s up to the trainer to figure it out.

That blog? People commenting who know NOTHING about the game, trying to get their shots in on the owner and the trainer. Making the most assinine comments I’ve ever heard, a lot of them bordering on defamation and slander.

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Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:00:49 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5592One of the blog sites has around 300 comments related to Mine that Bird. Most of the comments supported the gelding, some appeared to be from knowledgable individuals. The general consensus seemed to be that Mine that Birds’ racing problems started after his throat surgery. I never considered that. I looked up some stats on corrective surgery for epiglottis entrapment, and discovered only 60% of these procedures are successful, and many thoroughbreds never perform the same again. Horses have even had to be euthanized after failed surgeries. What puzzles me though, wouldn’t there be physical signs if this was Mine that Birds’ problem? I want to research the subject more thoroughly. I can’t believe I overlooked this possibility. It could be the key to explain it all, because I know the gelding is a good horse.
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Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:14:18 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5590TBRaceMan, great post.
]]>By: TBRaceManhttp://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/mine-that-bird-works-out-for-whitney-handicap/5001/comment-page-1/#comment-5587
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:40:56 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5587ds, LOL educated in what?
Sea of slop? Were you there? It was nowhere near the swamp it was when Smarty Jones won, he sure wasn’t a fluke. He won one race after that, the Preakness but then again people like you and AJ think the filly that beat Mine That Bird had maybe the best campaign of a 3 year old filly, EVER, don’t you? How can she barely beat him, then be so great yet he’s a fluke?

Save the horse? I doubt you’re talking to me, I actually OWN race horses some of which have run against some of these horses, some of which are ones you guys blab about without any idea of what you’re really talking about.

Kathleen, sorry it’s a double standard out here, some of these guys have their noses in the air and frankly it’s unwarranted because I guarantee you if one of them had a horse like MTB, Zenyatta or some of the ones we’ve had? They’d have a nervous breakdown or p**s their pants.
People make it sound like MTB is this podunk horse from nowhere with inferior breeding. Please, whip out the 400,000 it took for Blach and Allen to buy him there old ds and negative Nancy AJ.

]]>By: kathleenhttp://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/mine-that-bird-works-out-for-whitney-handicap/5001/comment-page-1/#comment-5586
Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:18:46 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5586Karen, once again, very true. I floated the idea out there the other day that the synthetics tracks were also harder to run on. The big name trainers with barns at several tracks use the synthetics excuse for staying away from California, yet the California horses seem to do quite well on dirt. Kinda makes you wonder if the east coast elitist attitude from Seabiscuit’s day isn’t still alive and kicking. Just as in the days of Seabiscuit, Zen seems to have become the ‘people’s horse’ being constantly demeaned by the east coast turf writers.
MTB is a gutsy little gelding that tweaked the noses of those same turf writers. How dare a New Mexico horse, transported by a relatively unknown trainer, demolish a field of KD hopefuls. They seem to relish his slide, giving him no free pass for the body changes from his 3 to 4 year old season that they do for RA. Disrespect was the perfect description.
]]>By: karen sweatmanhttp://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/mine-that-bird-works-out-for-whitney-handicap/5001/comment-page-1/#comment-5582
Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:38:42 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/horseracing/?p=5001#comment-5582It is actually more difficult for a horse to run on slop, and the risk factor for injury is higher. Due to the fact Mine that Bird trailed behind the other 19 horses until the final seconds, he choked on mud the entire trip. He was literally BLIND for most of the race. NO OTHER horse has ran the derby as impressively as MTB under those conditions, NONE. The Kentucky Derby has a rich tradition in this country and Mine that Bird is eternally etched in it’s history. The disrespect people have shown towards this gelding is simply a display of ignorance.
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